German Votes Moved Up 2 Months : Reunification: Kohl and De Maiziere praise the accelerated schedule. But the opposition calls it political maneuvering.

The race toward German unification took a surprise shortcut Friday when leaders of the two nations called joint elections for Oct. 14 in a bid to stave off devastating economic collapse in the East.

“A dream is becoming reality,” declared West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, vacationing in Austria, after his East German counterpart, Lothar de Maiziere, proposed an all-German vote nearly two months earlier than scheduled.

Such a vote would effectively seal German unification barely 11 months after the Berlin Wall opened, ending more than 40 years of bitter and bloody division.

Both parliaments still must ratify the election date, which initially was set for Dec. 2. The two countries just finished drafting a treaty outlining the merger of their political and legal systems. The last major international hurdle was cleared last month when the Soviet Union agreed to NATO membership for a united Germany.

De Maiziere readily admitted that quicker reunification cannot instantly solve East Germany’s deepening economic crisis, but he said the “political clarity” of a single government would reassure anxious citizens as well as investors.

“The faster that happens, the better for the restructuring of existing companies, for new investment and therefore for the creation of new jobs,” De Maiziere said.

“I live in East Germany, and I know what people on the street think and feel,” he said later in an interview on West German television, adding that “many do not trust” the current situation.

Since plunging into the free-market system July 1, East Germany has been struggling with rising unemployment and bankruptcies despite massive cash infusions from Bonn. About 240,000 workers are unemployed while 330,000 work only part-time. An additional 90,000 East Germans who emigrated to West Germany this year are still looking for work there.

Experts estimate that East German unemployment could skyrocket into the millions, in a work force of 8 million, and that one-third to one-half of all enterprises in East Germany will fail.

Factories unable to find Western partners are now saddled with the decrepit machinery, shoddy inventories and bloated work forces left behind by 40 years of Stalinist corruption and mismanagement.

Store shelves and show windows in East Germany are now chockablock with Western products, from candy bars to fur coats, leaving domestic goods largely untouched. Frustrated farmers now try to sell their produce from roadside stands.

Although Kohl conceded Friday that East Germany’s economic problems “were bigger than expected,” he asserted that they can “be mastered” by a united Germany.

Opponents of Kohl and De Maiziere, who are both Christian Democrats, denounced the call for joint elections in just 71 days as political maneuvering.

“Kohl engineered a social catastrophe in East Germany,” charged Horst Ehmke, a parliamentarian for the opposition Social Democrats in Bonn. “Now he’s afraid of losing the voters’ favor.”

The East German Social Democrats were meeting in special session to discuss quitting De Maiziere’s grand coalition, which could leave him short of a majority in the 400-seat Volkskammer, or Parliament.

De Maiziere suggested Oct. 14 because regional elections in East Germany’s five states already are planned for that day.

East German Foreign Minister Markus Meckel complained that De Maiziere had consulted Kohl on Tuesday but informed his own coalition partners of the revised date only 30 minutes before publicly announcing it.

“That kind of infamous behavior destroys the ability to govern,” Meckel said.

Earlier elections probably would allow Kohl to cash in on his popularity before the costs of repairing East Germany’s crippled economy mount even higher and stir more concern among West German taxpayers already fretting about the price tag on reunification.

Kohl has enjoyed a string of successes that have enhanced his image both at home and abroad, including his unexpectedly quick persuasion of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to permit a united Germany to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.